Zoids, In 100 Words
by pointytilly
Summary: Drabbles. Multiple series with a /Zero, Fuzors, and modelverse bias. Genre varies, but is mostly character study, gen, and-or humor. Most recently added: A bunch of drabbles as requested on Tumblr, mostly Fuzors. One for Amy as well.
1. Double drabble for a wild Liger

I do the drabbles = 100 words thing, and go by OpenOffice Writer for the final say on hundredness. Reviews and crit are welcome, though I don't normally do requests.

That's it. Really. Time for the action!

* * *

**Series:** Modelverse; no specific continuity  
**Genre:** ...gen?  
**Notes:** Starting with a double drabble...for a wild Liger.

* * *

Deserts were for the scuttling Zoids, the burrowers, the things with ways to get out of the sun. The liger wasn't one of them, though if it had thought spare for wishes it might have wanted to be. Heat haze played with the landscape, twisted its vision, threatened to lead astray instincts that pulled it towards home.

Its golden claws flinched away from the sand as it ran, cracked ground crumbling further in its wake. Earth fairly burned beneath its feet and the sun blazed on above, searing into its innards with an intensity that felt of melting, to the point where overheating nipped at the corners of its mind. It brought images of cores driven to such heat that they bubbled and boiled away...impossible, irrational, and so it kept running with no shade in sight and its thoughts turning inwards.

It collapsed around sunset, the first of the moons already on the rise. Scrub plants caught underneath its body hissed and burned away, a few wisps of steam and smoke joining the settling dustcloud. It growled wearily, contentedly, not moving further until it had cooled with the rest of the earth. It could see mountains on the horizon.


	2. Early attempts at Stoermer and Elena

**Series:** Battle Story, old Zoids Graphics breed  
**Character(s):** Störmer, Elena  
**Genre:** Introspection (and angst?)  
**Notes:** Set just before Gilvader Kills Everything in the old!Graphics take on events. One drabble per character.

* * *

I got Störmer's loyalty by existing, but earned it by listening. Silence is lonely without someone to share it, and he found me and I found him. It's that same loyalty that left him following Guylos, but I'm not sure of all that drives him these days. I don't think he is either. He hates the Republic and Guylos, hates my father just as much for running the Empire to the ground. Does he have anyone left but me, and do I still have him?

I miss the quiet conversations, feeling like the only one he would waste words on.

* * *

There's no point in trying to change what won't change, what can't change. It's something I think my father would have told me, but I've learned it well alone with Zenebas in his place. We're more alike than I'd have thought. More than I'd have wanted? He chased power to his death, I'm doing the same under another banner. The only difference? I want it for myself, to chase my own fate and not someone else's. They're in the way, he's in the way...and she's in the way with me.

It's time to see which of us will die.


	3. Heeere Wolfy…

**Series:** /Zero  
**Character(s):** Shadow Fox  
**Genre:** ...look over there!  
**Notes:** The Shadow Fox, as seen through the overdramatic lens.

* * *

Follow me, catch me, try your fangs on me if they can find a hold. Can you see me, Wolf, or is your pilot running blind? I'll lead you on like the fool at my controls wants. There's a fool at yours too, a man with a death wish. Perhaps descent into madness and dark alike is the only way to find me?

The night, the forest, they're mine. I was created for them, to dance in the dark. Do you know what your purpose is, Wolf? Can you climb, jump, even fall like me? You're about to find out.


	4. Headband Origins

**Series:** /Zero  
**Character(s):** Jack, Chris, Kelly  
**Genre:** Humor  
**Notes:** Double drabble.

* * *

"Come on, Jack. We're just dying to know your secret..." Kelly leaned closer, her green-yellow eyes pleadingly wide as she stared intently at Jack's forehead and then into his eyes when she realized that bothered him more.

Chris had opted for the less subtle and more amusing tactic of clinging to his arm, hanging off it and snickering softly and maniacally where a proper arm-hanging girl would have found it appropriate to giggle. "Spill it," she threatened, "before we have to do something drastic, like start calling you Jackie-poo."

"Or sexy Sisco snuggly-wuggly," Kelly suggested, knowing full well alliteration only deepened Jack's despair, prolonging it with properly placed...things beginning with P.

Jack just looked slightly pained and leaned away from her, prying at Chris' fingers with his free hand. "You two," he hissed, "Are ruthless. Cruel."

"We know," Chris said. "So settle our bet before we have to prove we don't make idle threats." She tightened her grip.

"They're golf clubs," Jack started, reluctantly, cocking his head back to indicate his headband and attached weights. "Mizuno T-Zoid brand."

Kelly groaned. "Ugh. That's terrible."

Jack shrugged. "There's a reason I didn't want to say anything."


	5. Just to torment Aardy

**Series:** /Zero  
**Character(s):** Jamie, Oscar, Leyon, Shadow  
**Genre:** ...crack.  
**Notes:** A buddy of mine keeps Jamie/Shadow as a crack pairing. Raven and Jamie have the same Japanese voice; the Wild Eagle is a near dead ringer for him.

* * *

Oscar and Leyon sat at the table, no doubt discussing past misadventures. But when Jamie got closer, that was far from what he heard:

"Would you like some biscuits with your coffee, sweetling?"

"Now, those won't exactly compliment my girly figure..."

Jamie backed away only to hit something metal. It was a small dinosaur Zoid, and it was holding...flowers?

He awoke with a scream, tangled in blankets and clinging to his pillow.

"Horrible, horrible dream," he whimpered, hoping no one else had heard. He didn't want to explain what had him so terrified. "Shouldn't...have eaten...that...purple fish."


	6. Get back here with my cookie!

**Series:** /Zero  
**Character(s):** Bit, Leena, Jamie  
**Genre:** Humor  
**Notes:** I'm rather sick of "Bit takes Leena's food, chase ensues" as a scene transition, so I wrote two things poking fun at its frequency in fic versus canon ;p.

* * *

1.  
'Twas familiar, or rather too familiar: requests to return baked goods, Bit Cloud, or face destruction.

Unusually, however, Leena (an intrepid claimer of food-that-wasn't-hers, by Bit's reckoning) had cornered him behind the couch.

"Look, see! Yours was peanut butter, mine was M&Ms!" He waved the cookie in the air, colored chocolate pieces a bright offering of peace.

"Oh, oops." Leena looked first sheepish, then devious as she realized the error in Bit's defense. A quick lunge, some vaulting over cushions—"I'll take it anyway!"

Bit paused a moment, then gave chase. "Leeeena, GIMME BACK MY COOKIE!"

* * *

2.  
The first time Jamie woke to shouting, he didn't think much of it. Not the second, either. But when the third morning dawned with the same refrain:

"BIT CLOUD! GET BACK HERE WITH MY COOKIE!"

He began to suspect something was wrong. An investigation using reprogrammed battle analysis software confirmed his impossible fears: a time loop. And it was drawing tighter, becoming instinct, becoming normal.

He would be the only one that would remember tomorrow, the only one that could break the pattern. If it didn't break him...

Steal Leena's food, save the world. It sounded so easy in theory.


	7. That's not a dotted line…

**Series:** /Zero  
**Character(s):** Bit, random fangirl  
**Genre:** Humor

* * *

It would be redundant to say Bit often missed the point—but this time, he really did. It went hopelessly wide, sailed past his shoulder, on into clear blue skies and back down again, crashing through metaphorical windows and bouncing to a stop amid showers of mental glass, blunted by an oblivious mind and teenage hormones.

Yes, bouncing would be the right word. "...you want me to sign those? Won't it wash off?"

The girl sighed, shifted, readjusted her top. "I can get it tattooed?" she said, as if it were obvious. "Now hurry up, my friends want a go."


	8. Cloudwatching

**Series:** /Zero  
**Character(s):** Bit, Vega  
**Genre:** Gen, character interaction

* * *

They'd battled: the shredded landscape around their Zoids' frozen bodies told the story in furrows of scorched earth and ruined armor. The Zero and Fury's rest was peaceful, though, death grips around throats loosened but firm in sportsmanlike truce. Their pilots lounged beneath, watching smoke draw pictures in the sky.

"I see Fury ripping apart...Helcats. That one's face is crushed, see? And the next bit...that's a bagel."

"With cheese?"

"Yeah, maybe. Hey, archaeopteryx or ostrich, y'think?"

History would go on to describe Bit Cloud and Vega Obscura with words like epic and genius, forgetting the children they were.


	9. The Zoidbirds in spring

**Series:** Modelverse; no specific continuity  
**Genre:** Humor  
**Notes:** Birdsong is less pretty when you think about what the birds are _saying._

* * *

Early communication between the human and Zoidian groups was awkward. And after the duck-feeding incident with wild Pegasuros, it was agreed that discussion of native wildlife was important as well.

"So, what do the Zoid-birds say in spring?"

"Pardon?"

"Well, our Earth ones the calls come down to 'my tree', 'look out, it's a predator', and 'HAVE SEX WITH ME!'. And the first two carry over. But yours, do they say 'My core is bigger than your core'? 'I'm gonna explode, get me some water'?"

"I...stop asking these questions! Do you Earth men think of nothing else?"


	10. Instincts

**Series:** Modelverse  
**Genre:** Gen  
**Notes:** I imagine the animal instinct + AI brain mishmash would be...confusing. More overdramatic Zoid viewpoint ;p. Thanks to 9TailedFox for the retitling suggestion.

* * *

Fact sheets teach the Geno Breaker is reserved for the finest ace pilots, that we're a difficult breed to control—the sort that stares the lion in the eye before ripping off its face. Either it's merciless ferocity or the finest Empire engineering, depends which side you ask.

You've given me intelligent thought, but what would you ask a carnivore to do when it no longer eats, when the memory of its blood still boils with the will to survive? You have given me territory, told me it must be defended. The Liger has come to take it, nothing more.


	11. Do not take the glasses!

**Series:** Modelverse (NJR)  
**Character(s):** Winner Kid, Verditer Rowen  
**Genre:** Character interaction, humor  
**Notes:** Yes, that's really the characters' names XD;. Set after the Gorhecks Fanbook Ex, which involves two buddies sneaking a Panzer and a Gorhecks against a Spiner's Jamming Blade. The Gorhecks has to self-destruct to stop the Spiner, and there's no explanation of how they get back to base...inside just the Zero's head, one presumes, and during a very cold winter. Thus, slightly-cracky double drabble.

(Translation of the fanbook here, remove spaces: creativeinsanity . net / zoids / bswiki / index . php / Fanbook_Ex_03:_Gorhecks )

* * *

The Panzer was still offline, and it was undeniably _cold_. Banding together for warmth had been entirely logical, but Winner wanted it to be a bit more comfortable. He shifted, tried not to lean on Verditer _or_ the snow-soaked coats they'd wedged in the seam where Liger face met cheek.

Two uptight guys in one Zoid's head was no good.

"You know how people trapped like this ends," he said, then worried as seconds went by and Verditer didn't raise to the bait. Losing body heat and humor, that wasn't good.

So he tried something more blunt. More annoying. He reached over, hooked the earpiece of Verditer's glasses, and quickly eased them off his head. "It'll be funnier if they find us frozen naked."

"Give those back, or I'll make you walk home."

"I outrank you, that's got to be some kind of insubordination. And it's my Zoid's head." Winner relaxed, glad to hear his friend talking and breathing properly again. He didn't return the glasses, instead dangling them just out of reach in the cramped knees-folded world of the Zero's face. Verditer twisted round, squinted:

"When we turn to cannibalism, how would you like to be cooked?"


	12. Stealth teamsfic shoutout

**Series:** /Zero  
**Character(s):** Jack, the Taskers, Team Tigers  
**Genre:** Humor  
**Notes:** Based a little off a long-dead longer fic project, and written in a notebook while waiting for a ride downtown. I shouldn't find Jack's headband so amusing.

* * *

Jack wouldn't have agreed to the tourney if he'd known it involved paired teams. He had standards. And if he'd known the organizers had a cruel sense of humor—

His team, three Saix. The Tigers Team...

He blamed the Taskers for finding it so damn funny, and he wasn't sure who they were enjoying tormenting more. Jack looked at the Tigers and winced: Chris had talked one of them out of their _coat_, and Kelly was describing the time he'd gotten his headband caught in a revolving door. In great detail, with hand gestures.

This would be a long week.


	13. Kingliger

**Series:** Battle story  
**Character(s):** None named  
**Genre:** Gen  
**Notes:** Zoids Fanatic mentioned nobody really writes about Kingligers. This resulted. (I _like_ Kingligers. I promise.)

* * *

The rocks are treacherous, punctuated in sandglass and sinkholes. The Kingliger navigates with grace beyond its Shield cousins, claws hardly touching the ground yet each step carefully placed. Born and engineered for a world not its own, the Liger's white-and-gold coat is defiant, a reminder of the sunshine back home.

Its pursuers run faster. They've lived on Nyx their entire life, and know every twist and turn of the Devil's Maze. Black dogs corner the Kingliger: cliffs on one side, lava the other.

In the heat haze, laser blades light up, and the once-scout prepares to die.


	14. Nightlight

**Series:** Battle story  
**Character(s):** Original characters  
**Genre:** Gen  
**Notes:** I've wanted to draw or write something involving reading by Dark Zoid for a long time, and this came out of it.

* * *

Aenor Hildegard reads in the dark.

Her Hel Digunner lays alongside, snout tucked between its claws and body still thrumming with fuel. She turns pages by green glow, words outlined with the shadow of her hair.

The Zenebas conscripts blunder around at night, missing familiar stars and the moons. She won't begrudge them homesickness, but their shared camp is polluted with artificial light.

The curious soldier is a surprise; Aenor barks curses and blinks away afterimages.

She offers a seat against the brightest part of Hel Digunner, they offer apologies. The flashlight remains off, and the book is read aloud.

* * *

They meet again, after the meteors and after the ocean. Aenor has gone north, like many Devil's Maze natives.

The tundra is iron-ashen, miles of wide ground cracked by storms. Even here, the Empire's legacy is visible—there are no Deathcats stalking prey, no Gilvaders gliding low in orange clouds. It's quiet, like the land has stopped fighting.

There is no more deochalcum, no more Hel Digunners to pilot.

Aenor doesn't question Zenebas migrants any longer. Some went back to their warm continent, others stayed. Others still carry flashlights, and that is enough. This time, they talk about rebuilding.


	15. 10 Percent Potential

**Series:** /Zero  
**Character(s):** Jack Sisco, Leon, and Bit  
**Pairing(s):** Jack/Leon  
**Genre:** Crack/humor  
**Notes: **I told Rocke I'd do this...ages and ages ago. So here it is now!

* * *

Jack watched Leon's eyes for potential tells. "Our potential relationship has quite the potential to be mutually beneficial."

"Indeed. Our Zoids are renowned for their potential agility, but true possibility lies in our own potential." Leon remained stoic, stroking a chip like one might potentially stroke a lover. "Which, like the money we will potentially earn, may prove infinite."

"You underestimate my affection for cash," Jack replied, but his lips twitched in a potential smile.

Bit, potentially the worst poker face (and player) at the table, squirmed in his seat. "Quit talking potential and do it already. Bet, I mean."


	16. New Year's

**Series:** Battle Story  
**Character(s):** Helic, Rosa  
**Pairing(s):** Helic/Rosa  
**Genre:** Humor

**Notes:** At the end of the third battle story book, Helic proposes to Rosa Lauri in a field hospital as everybody rings in the new year. They're first interrupted by all the nurses who were trying to listen at the door as Helic stumbled over his words, but this stems from a comment Jammer made a while back about the soldiers watching outside drunkenly pointing out the romance going on.

* * *

They've chased off the nurses, and the tension between them when finally alone doesn't stay tension long.

Some maneuvering onto the hospital bed later, Rosa finds herself reaching for Helic's pants, trying humor to calm their nerves—

"Ah, mister president, that...looks promising for your being able to produce an heir."

Helic just blushes brighter red, and freezes in place as there's a bang on the window.

"Heyyyy your excellencemancy! Gonna get some...yeah...oh. Sorry. Happy new year, miss."

The soldier plastered against it slides to the ground still holding champagne, and the mood is broken a second time.


	17. Not My Father's Son

**Series:** Zoids (Battle Story)  
**Character(s):** Wolff  
**Genre:** Character study  
**Notes:** Drabble request for Plink, who wanted Wolff and Prozen. Ah, this ended up more just Wolff. I'm sorry! Set during the final Fanbook Ex story.

* * *

Wolff sees only the Zero and the man in front of him. Ray, who sent Anna to her death, his Zoid bristling and determined in the face of overwhelming power. The Energy Liger rends its Phoenix coat, strips it bare. Those bright, mocking eyes will dim by his claws. He leaps—

_too soft, too naive, in the end_

—the Falcon materializes, and their fight ends in a flash.

What would his father say?

Wolff grits his teeth, steels nerves Prozen feared unsuitable to rule, and the Liger rises, a ghost on borrowed time. This city, these people, will not burn.


	18. I thought it'd just need vacuuming

**Series: **Fuzors  
**Character(s):** Mach Storm in general  
**Genre:** Humor  
**Notes:** Adlas requested Mach Storm + screwing around with video games. I decided they'd have a bunch of older and hopelessly out of date consoles because someone collected them, so game night would involve a lot of taking apart all of the fancy window/wall/TV thing hookups and attaching adapters everywhere and leaving Hop confused by the reassembly later. This is the aftermath.

* * *

There were cables of every console type tangled across every surface of the meeting room. One even circled round Mitsy and the fishtank, leaving her suspended against the glass and batting at inaccessible tangs.

"It was RD." "Nuh uh, Sigma's fault." "I say it's Sweet's." "Totally Matt."

Helmut tapped his foot.

"...RD started it," the others agreed.

"It was _so_ Sigma!" RD said, pouting.

"I'll be back in ten minutes, and this room will be _clean_. No buts."

The last Helmut heard was a whispered "Yeah, and I still kicked yours!" from RD, and the sound of another thrown controller.


	19. Vowel swap

**Series:** Fuzors  
**Character(s):** Luke, RD, Blake  
**Pairing(s):** Blake/Luke  
**Genre:** Humor  
**Notes:** Jammer wanted Blake and Luke and a certain typo that haunts them. I ended up with two things, so you get them both. I really want to draw RD's card, which should totally involve a weird (well, it's RD, of course it'll be weird) future Santa/Christmas.

* * *

Luke had gone through a thousand ways to say "hey, I really like you". Some were to the point, some long and sappy, and they all came out as "uh..." when he spoke.

He shouldn't have kept them in an unencrypted text file. Sure, Blake left his computers alone. That didn't stop _him_ from being a total complete stupid idiot and sending the wrong file. To RD.

He wasn't expecting to get it back with full editor's notes and a reply saying not to worry, buddy, I proofread your mushy stuff.

"Bluke...and Lake? How did I even type that?"

* * *

"RD, I've got something to tell you. It will break your spirit, as is fitting to begin a new year of our rivalry."

"Blake, be nice." Luke swatted him upside the head. "It was really nice of you to send us a card. You even made it yourself."

Said card involved them both dressed in reindeer suits with Santa playing matchmaker and actually wished them a "happy chrismaversarry", but Luke appreciated the thought.

"Yes, but look! RD made...a TYPO."

"Bluke and Lake? Oh jeez, now I'm doing it!"

RD collapsed into a ball on the couch, and Luke sighed.


	20. Trade seats?

**Series:** Fuzors  
**Character(s):** Blake, Luke  
**Genre:** Character interaction  
**Notes:** My SO mentioned wanting a drabble about Luke too. I'd already done humor, so I went with something more serious this time.

* * *

Blake takes Luke out for drinks four days after the Seismosaurus.

Well, it's strawberry soda and dinner, and it's not out so much as it is to the corner booth at a pub. Luke huddles in the window seat, fearing recognition and questions about things still raw.

Blake orders for them both, Luke pointing at the menu while hiding his face in Blake's shoulder. He doesn't even growl when the waitstaff calls them cute, though he glares like he's wishing he were staring out Luke's window instead.

"Thanks," Luke says in a quiet moment.

Blake pats his shoulder. "No problem."


	21. To What We Once Had

**Series:** Fuzors  
**Character(s):** Amy  
**Genre:** Gen  
**Notes:** I was pleasantly surprised by Amy turning out to have an asshole ex who didn't get redeemed as ~just a misunderstood guy~ she belonged back with—I'm sure it wasn't so easy as just goodbye, but have the moment in time when she finally left.

* * *

The König Wolf is a mess.

Keith is a mess too, raging about what they could have had and ignoring everything they already have.

But what do they have anymore? His ambition? Their apartment, with his choice of location and furniture? He wants to sell the Wolf as scrap.

No, Amy tells Keith, she'll repair the Wolf, because _they're through_. The walk to its cockpit is terrifying yet the most satisfying she's taken in months. Amy and Wolf leave together, stabilizers and stability be damned.

Maybe she'll find a team, or start one. She's definitely going to get a couch.


	22. White cat

**Series:** Fuzors  
**Character(s):** Sandra, Alpha, Mitsy  
**Genre:** Gen  
**Notes: **I have a soft spot for characters taking in pets. Sort-of-requested by skygatecreations!

* * *

The cat has Sandra's attention from the moment she hops onto the dining room table, begging for breakfast like she's always lived here.

Alpha is less impressed.

"That thing looks _mangy_. Put it outside before Father sees."

Sandra feels compelled to defend a fellow lady: "Your hair would get tangled too, if you were a stray."

She reaches over to stroke the cat between her ears. The cat purrs, first in quiet little starts, then once she remembers how a happy rumble.

"I'm naming her Mitsy," Sandra announces, and when Alpha isn't watching she feeds Mitsy bits of his omelette.


End file.
